Eurostar Death

An Albanian man who was refused entry to the UK has died after falling from a Eurostar train as he was leaving the country.

The 22-year-old was exiting Britain voluntarily when he fell from high speed service to Brussells as it travelled through Cheriton just before 6pm yesterday.

The incident, which is not being treated as suspicious, caused long delays to the Eurostar service as police launched an investigation.

A British Transport Police (BTP) spokesman said the man was declared dead at the scene and that officers were trying to "establish the full circumstances'' leading to his death.

He added: "At this stage, it is believed the deceased is a 22-year-old Albanian national who had entered the UK from Brussels and was returning voluntarily after being refused entry.''

The man's body was taken to William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and Eurostar services were temporarily suspended before resuming but with delays.

Richard Ashworth, MEP for South East England and Conservative spokesman on agriculture and rural affairs, was one of the passengers on the train.

He said: "The understanding was that an illegal migrant being deported somehow got off it and was killed, so they stopped for police to be brought on.

"It defies logic, how you get a door open on a train at high speed.''

Mr Ashworth, who got back into London around 10.30pm and hopes to travel to Brussels today instead, said Eurostar's communication with passengers "leaves a lot to be desired''.

He said there had been regular, but ``pointless'' announcements for the three hours they were stuck on the train, and passengers were relying on Twitter and social networking to find out what had happened.

"The best source in our carriage seemed to be a lady from the BBC who was on the next train,'' he said.